TIRANA, Albania — Ukraine’s European backers are gearing up to impose further sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin after his no-show at much-anticipated talks in Turkey between Kyiv and Moscow.
Britain’s Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Friedrich Merz, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are meeting in the Albanian capital Friday to discuss how to stop the fighting in Ukraine.
The conversation at Tirana’s European Political Community summit, an informal gathering of the continent’s leaders, will focus on dramatically scaling up sanctions on Moscow, four European officials told POLITICO. Like others in this story, they were granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomacy.
Punitive tariffs on Russian imports are under discussion, two European officials said. The EU has imposed sizable sanctions on Moscow since it launched its 2022 invasion but have held back from a total trade embargo against Russia. Imposing EU tariffs had previously been floated as a option to bypass Hungary’s opposition to sanctions.
On Wednesday, EU ambassadors agreed to a 17th sanctions package against Russia that included targeting almost 200 ships of the so-called shadow fleet, used to bypass existing sanctions on oil and gas exports.
The direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow, the first since shortly after the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion in 2022, began with confusion over who would attend and if anyone would meet. Zelenskyy arrived in Turkey ready for talks, but Putin refused to attend and instead sent a lower-level delegation.
U.S. President Donald Trump hinted he would be prepared to join high-level talks in Turkey — but blasted any hope of a breakthrough after Putin’s absence was confirmed. “Look, nothing is gonna happen until Putin and I get together,”he said on board Air Force One.
Ahead of Thursday’s talks, a senior U.K. official warned that if they weren’t successful, conversation would likely “revolve around sanctions and how we can bring countries together to begin those stronger sanctions that were referenced on Saturday in Kyiv.” The leaders of France, Germany and Poland threatened a raft of sanctions on Saturday if Russia refused “a total and unconditional ceasefire.”
“President Putin is hiding,” an aide to Macron said before the Kremlin confirmed the Russian leader would not travel to Turkey.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Europeans and Americans needed to “go further” and “suffocate” the Russian economy to force Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
“We must prepare to impose devastating sanctions that could suffocate the Russian economy once and for all,” he told French broadcaster BFMTV on Wednesday.
According to an EU official, the drive for new sanctions is inspired by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who has suggested hitting Russian exports with 500 percent tariffs if Putin doesn’t stop his attacks on Ukraine.
“We would take inspiration from the magnitude” of his proposal, said the official.
Esther Webber contributed to this report from London.
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